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ThesisItem Open Access Scientisation of indigenous technical knowledge of tribal farmers in Ranchi district of Jharkhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-12) Singh, Smriti; Sharma, GyanendraThe basic component of any country’s knowledge system is its Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK). It is a cumulative body of knowledge and techniques handed down through generations by cultural transmission of the relationship of living beings including humans with one another and their environment. ITK practices in agriculture are farmer-friendly, socially-accepted, economically-feasible and environmentally-sound and suited to the specific bio-physical and socio-economic conditions. This knowledge has tremendous potential to address the current concerns of conventional agriculture like depletion and degradation of the natural resource base, poor productivity and pest and disease problems. Assessment of ITKs for their scientific rationality could be a step towards their integration in the formal research system for knowledge management for sustainable agricultural development. Keeping this in view a study entitled, "Scientisation of Indigenous Technical Knowledge of Tribal Farmers in Ranchi district of Jharkhand" was undertaken with the objectives: i. To identify the process of systematic documentation and scientisation of Indigenous Technical Knowledge, ii. To study the process of scientisation of Indigenous Technical Knowledge about pest and disease management among tribal farmers, iii. To delineate the constraints encountered in utilisation of Indigenous Technical Knowledge by tribal farmers and 4. To develop a framework for systematic documentation and scientisation of Indigenous Technical Knowledge. Ranchi district of Jharkhand was selected purposively keeping in view substantial tribal population in the district. Two blocks namely, Angara and Tamar were selected purposively, being the tribal dominated blocks in the district. From each selected block two villages namely, Dhurleta and Jaspur from Angara and Amhesa and Uludih from Tamar were selected randomly from among the tribal dominated villages. Selection of tribal farmers was done through snowball sampling. Descriptive research design was used for this study. Three categories of respondents i.e. 55 ITK experts spread across the country, 30 plant protection scientists belonging to State Agricultural University and ICAR system located at Ranchi and 45 tribal farmers who acted as key informants from selected villages constituted the sample for the study. ITK experts and plant protection scientists were randomly selected from the list and multistage sampling procedure was followed for selection of tribal farmers. Delphi technique was employed to identify ideal steps in the processes of systematic documentation and scientisation of ITKs by the experts. Scientisation process was conceptualised in three sequential steps of particularisation, validation and generalisation. For particularisation, rationality analysis of selected ITKs was done by the plant protection scientists. For this, three types of rating scales were used. Validation was done through Quantification of Indigenous Knowledge (QuIK) method by the tribal key informants and Mean Perceived Effectiveness Methodology (MPEM) by the scientists. For generalisation, scientists were asked to indicate whether ITKs can be disseminated directly or require certain modifications/ blending with corresponding scientific technologies (CSTs). For better utilisation of selected ITKs the tribal farmers were asked to indicate their preferences of mode of dissemination. For the constraints encountered in utilisation of ITKs, tribal farmers were asked to indicate degree of importance of constraints on a 3-point continuum. Based on the findings of the referred aspects, a process framework was developed for systematic documentation and scientisation of ITKs. The findings led to conclude that majority of the tribal farmers were females of old age belonging to Oraon communityhaving education up to middle school level and marginal size of holdings with long farming experience, lower level of risk orientation, social participation and innovativeness and majority of the ITK experts were males of age group of 51-65 years, holding senior positions in SAUs and ICAR institutes with experience between 10-15 years involved in extension and ITKrelated work to a greater extent. The ITK experts suggested that a combination of suitable methods should be used for documentation of ITKs. The most preferred scale to assess the scientific rationality of ITKs was reported to be 3-point scale of Dhaliwal and Singh (2010) followed by 5- point scale of Hiranand (1979). QuIK was found to be more preferred method for validation followed by MPEM. For generalisation of ITKs, a consensus emerged that if ITKs are at par with their CSTs in efficacy and effectiveness may be disseminated directly to the farmers as well as through their Ready to Use (RTU) products. Otherwise, further experimentation should be done by blending of both the knowledge systems. ITKs which were considered for QuIK analysis i.e. control of Rice hispa (Parsu leaves or Mahua leaves are applied), Rice caseworm (Solution of tender bamboo shoot extract with water or Parsu leaves). Bihar hairy caterpillar (Mixture of Ash and Kerosene oil or Sinduwar leaves + Sand + Kerosene oil), Rice gall fly (Parsu leaves or Sinduwar leaves) and Banki disease (Bamboo rhizome pieces mixed with water or leaves of Neem) were found to be superior to their CSTs in terms of cost-effectiveness, environment-friendliness and farming system compatibility whereas CSTs were preferred more in terms of effectiveness in controlling pests/diseases, quickness in problem solving and ease in preparation. Farmer to farmer extension was suggested by the tribal farmers for generalisation of ITKs followed by maintenance of ITK register and creating awareness through different extension methods including publication of extension literature and use of information communication technology. In order to increase the accessibility of ITKs, a process framework has been developed with the main partners of research, extension and user systems to facilitate sustainable agricultural development.ThesisItem Open Access Climate smart agriculture interventions for rural livelihoods: An exploratory study in Odisha(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-07) Das, Usha; Ansari, M.A.The global climate targets like Paris Agreement are set to argue that transformations are required for the survival of humans with the onset of climate change in a sustainable manner on this planet. Here, climate change adaptations and climate smart agriculture (CSA) interventions will act as a shield against such changes. And a systematic evolution in the production, resilience and mitigation pillars are required as a mark of such transformations. CSA in any agro- ecosystem is one such protean approach. It revolves around re-routing the farm livelihoods to new directions, de-risk these livelihoods by secured early warning systems & adaptive safety nets and climate informed advisories and finally restructure, realign and reform the policies through social, financial and innovation movements to build more resilient and sustainable rural livelihoods. With a rising emissions of methane, mostly from agricultural production, falling groundwater levels, rise in tropical cyclones, concurrent floods, post monsoon droughts, India in general and Odisha in particular is under constant climatic distress. To address such climatic issues in India, ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) introduced National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project. Odisha, being the third most vulnerable state to climate change with a vulnerable coastal as well as non-coastal ecosystem inclusive of NICRA adopted study districts was the locale of this study. Three dominant livelihood groups considered for the study were crop farmers, livestock farmers and crop+livestock farmers. Following an exploratory and descriptive research design, the study was conducted in two purposively selected districts, i.e. coastal district of Kendrapara and the non-coastal district of Dhenkanal. The study sample comprised of 200 famers from three distinct livelihood groups that were selected through purposive sampling with proportional allocation. The study concluded that the two climatically vulnerable districts differed with respect to attributes of farmers, asset holdings, climate knowledge level, vulnerability & resiliency to climate change and perceived effectiveness of various CSA interventions unique to their settings. The overall livelihood status of farmers of both districts was below average, and of all the five assets, natural assets were lowest contributing to the overall livelihood status of the farmers due to its lengthy time lapse for recreation in post climate malady. The crop+livestock farmers’ livelihood group had better performance in every attribute thus indicating that livelihood diversification is a key for survival during climatic hazards. Those CSA interventions given by NICRA which were need based and location specific were perceived to be effective along with various institutional & organizational push factors. The study also revealed that involvement of KVKs in implementation of NICRA had better impact on the farmers. An output framework for prioritizing and up-scaling CSA interventions was also inferred from the study. A number of inferential/relational statistical analyses like correlation, regression, path analysis, factor analysis, structural equation modeling were carried out to reveal various drivers of adoption of CSA interventions. The barriers like inefficient governance, lack of timely information, lack of market and credit support etc. were ranked highest. Some plausible solutions to these barriers were also documented in this study. Thus, the study outcomes suggest that climate smart agriculture policy should consider the differential, location-specific, demand-driven and need-based prioritization of CSA interventions so that they are a part of sustainable development for rural livelihoods. Thus, the study entitled “Climate Smart Agriculture Interventions for Rural Livelihoods: An Exploratory Study in Odisha” will enable the policy makers in developing a strategic framework to address such aforementioned needs.ThesisItem Open Access A study on the performance of self-help groups (SHGs) under Deendayal Antyaodaya Yojana- National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) in Uttarakhand state(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-02) Rana, Pratima; Bhardwaj, NeelamSustainability and improvement in the life of rural people is the main agenda of all developmental programmes. The Government of India since independence has implemented various programme to alleviate poverty. Schemes like Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWACRA), Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Supply of Improved Toolkits for Rural Artisans (SITRA) and Training of Rural Youth for Self employment (TRYSEM) were implemented in a row after Community Development Programme (CDP) in 1952. After lots of thinking and introspection of previous schemes, a new philosophy and approach saw the light of the day and Swarn Jayanati Grameen Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY) was restructured as National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in 2011, the strategy is to encourage women in rural households to be part of Self- Help Groups. The three pillars on which Deendayal Antyaodaya Yojana- National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) stands were universal social mobilization, financial inclusion and livelihood enhancement. The present study is an attempt to explore the extent to which SHGs under NRLM are enabling women to be self-sufficient. As there was limited literature available regarding the performance of SHGs established under DAY-NRLM in Uttarakhand state, so this study has been taken up to give an idea about the immediate outcomes of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) established under DAY-NRLM. The focus of the present study was to study the socio-economic, communication and psychological characteristics of the women members, measures the group factors, assessing the performance of the SHGs formed under NRLM, to find the relationship among independent variables and the performance of SHGs and to identify the constraints faced by SHGs beneficiaries and the implementing agency. Uttarakhand constitutes the universe for the present study. Simple random sampling without replacement was adopted for the present study. Out of the thirteen districts in the Uttarakhand state, only two districts Udham Singh Nagar and Dehradun were selected purposively for having higher number of SHGs under Uttarakhand State Rural Livelihood Mission (USRLM). Subsequently two blocks from each district were selected purposively for the study purpose which had maximum number of SHGs in their respective areas. The lists of SHGs were collected from the Block Development Office of each block. Out of which, total twenty eight SHGs were selected randomly using random number generator for the study purpose i.e. Seven SHGs from each block. Those Self-Help Groups were selected which had been working from more than three years and not having less than ten members in the group. For the study purpose 280 women member were interviewed. On the basis of the findings related to socio-economic, communication and psychological characteristics of the women members of SHGs it was concluded that majority of the respondents were middle-aged, belonged to upper caste, married, had nuclear family with medium size, and have medium socio-economic status. The women members were high in risk taking ability, achievement motivation, information seeking behaviour, decision making ability and leadership ability followed by medium level of self-confidence. It was also found that the majority of the SHGs were under medium level of performance. The women members performance were high in group process, task function and maintaining group atmosphere and it was medium in participation, maintenance function and interpersonal trust. The various group variables were combined to conclude that groups had medium level of performance on the basis of group process, participation, task function, maintenance function, interpersonal trust and group atmosphere. The age, education, socio-economic status, achievement motivation, leadership ability, information seeking behaviour, family size, self-confidence, decision making ability, risk taking ability, group process, participation, maintenance function, group atmosphere and interpersonal trust did not had statistically significant relationship with the performance of the SHGs formed under DAY-NRLM and only task function had a significant relationship with the performance of SHGs formed under DAY-NRLM. The major constraints perceived by the SHGs were reluctance of members to take leadership role, economically poor family background, lack of freedom to take decisions, unequal treatment by male family member, insufficient amount of financial assistance as per the activity chosen, lack of space for working, transportation problems, infrastructure problem, lack of consensus by the SHG members, improper use of loans and lack of interpersonal trust. While some major administrative constraints faced by implementing agency i.e. NRLM were insufficient staff, irregular fund flow, hesitant to take up leadership role and lack of awareness of people about programme and irregular maintenance of register. The NRLM programme in Uttarakhand state is working very efficiently covering poor women in rural areas and providing them with livelihood opportunities, capacity building and financial assistance. The NRLM provided necessary support in form of human and social capital and institutions to the rural poor households and gave space, voice and resources to the women to make them self-dependent. So it can be concluded that the performance of SHGs formed under NRLM was satisfactory and rural women were empowered.ThesisItem Open Access A study on stubble burning behaviour of farmers in Punjab(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-03) Huria, Arpit; Bhardwaj, NeelamRice-wheat cropping system is the most widely followed cropping systems in India. In northern states of India specifically Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, majority of the farmers harvest these crops using combine harvesters. The mechanized harvesting of paddy leaves a large quantity of stubble which takes a lot of time to decompose in the soil. Despite knowing alternative methods of stubble management, farmers burn a significant portion of the stubble on-farm. Stubble burning not only causes environmental pollution but also harms the soil and human health. Over the years, the stubble burning has become a major issue, threatening the air quality with numerous other ill effects. Despite this, it seems that the problem of stubble burning is difficult to be solved by technical or legal interventions alone. Research studies suggest that there is a need to identify the determinants of certain behaviours to change them. In order to understand and change behaviour, scientists rely heavily on appropriate behavioural theories to identify determinants of a particular behaviour. The present study has utilized the Theory of Planned Behaviour for understanding the determinants of stubble burning behaviour of the farmers. This may further prove helpful in designing appropriate and suitable interventions to bring change in this behaviour. Keeping this in mind, “A study on Stubble Burning Behaviour of farmers in Punjab” was undertaken. The study was carried out in Malwa region of Punjab as it recorded the maximum number of stubble burning incidents in the state. For selecting the respondents, multi stage sampling procedure was adopted. The selection of districts, blocks and villages were conducted using simple random sampling without replacement. From Malwa region, three districts, viz. Bathinda, Sangrur and Ludhiana were selected respectively. One block from each selected district, i.e. Bathinda, Sunam and Khanna were selected at random. The villages namely Khialiwala and Amargarh from Bathinda block; Goh and Lalheri from Khanna block; and Lakhmirwala and Kharial villages from Sunam block were selected for the study. The selection of a total of 246 respondents from these villages was made on proportional allocation method. Descriptive research design was followed to meet the objectives of the study. The quantitative information was collected through pre-tested and modified semi-structured interview schedule. The data collected were coded, tabulated, analysed and interpreted with the help of SPSS and AMOS software programmes. The profile characteristics of the respondents revealed that most of the respondents were middle-aged (65.46%) between 26-50 years, male (91.06%), had formal education up to intermediate level (21.95%) and possessed semi-medium land holding (27.24%), i.e. between 5-10 acres. Majority of the farmers (51.46%) belonged to low annual income category i.e. between Rs. 50,000- Rs. 4,50,000 per annum, and were practising specialized farming (45.93%). Overall, 51.63 per cent of the farmers were categorized under medium information seeking behaviour. It was also found that most of the farmers possessed medium level of innovativeness (49.19%), risk orientation (47.15%) and scientific orientation (57.32%) while high levels of ecological consciousness (45.53%) and economic motivation (42.28%). The findings also revealed that most of the farmer respondents (45.93%) showed medium level of awareness towards various stubble management measures and had medium cropping intensity (67.48%). It was found that maximum number of respondents showed positive attitude towards stubble burning (51.63%), strong subjective norms associated with stubble burning (42.68%), high perceived behavioural control (58.54%) and medium level of behavioural intention regarding stubble burning (41.06%). Majority of the farmers (58.13%) have been burning the paddy stubble on their field since last five or more years. Also, most of the farmer respondents (49.19%) burnt more than 80 per cent of the total stubble produced and manages the rest by other measures such as incorporation using Super Seeder etc. It was also found that the majority of farmer respondents (53.66%) showed ‘high’ performance of the overall stubble behaviour. The findings of Structural Equation Modeling revealed that attitude, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms were in a positive and significant relationship with behavioural intention Among profile characteristics, economic motivation had a positive and significant relationship with stubble burning behaviour of the farmers. The social marketing plan for the study was proposed on the basis of BEHAVE framework. The plan consisted of two components; the first focussing on the attitude change while the other considering the overall behaviour change. It was concluded that the findings of the present study may help and provide guidance to the extension personnel, the planners, policy makers and agencies which are working towards putting a halt at stubble burning in northern states.ThesisItem Open Access A study on communication networks and marketing behaviour of vegetable growers in kumaon region of Uttarakhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-02) Shah, Priyanka; Ansari, M.A.Vegetable cultivation in the state of Uttarakhand has emerged as financially rewarding practice and could replace subsistence farming in the rain-fed hill agriculture. The state government has also undertaken many special initiatives for promoting vegetable cultivation and up scaling the marketing infrastructure & strategy in the state by designing various policies and programmes. Despite many government policies and initiatives, the problem of marketing the vegetables remain a key issue. Besides, the vegetable growers are not as well served by the agriculture extension system as the farmers growing fruit crops and food grains; and due to this, productivity and production efficiency remains quite low. Public and private extension agents can play the role of key communicators in the promotion of vegetable cultivation. The information flow can be improved, and this can help in the marketing process. There is need to assist farmers to develop their understanding of relationship between the market information and communication source. The flow of information in communication networks is a major concern in agricultural extension services as they help farmers in timely decision making, better farming and improved livelihood. Also, there is a need to analyze the communication network for effective use of information sources in marketing of vegetable production. If the right networks are identified for information exchange about improved agriculture and marketing practices within the community, it may help in promoting agricultural innovations through extension services and other programmes. Keeping this in view, the study entitled “Communication Networks and Marketing Behaviour of Vegetable Growers in Kumaon Region of Uttarakhand” was undertaken. The study was conducted in Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. Out of thirteen districts of Uttarakhand, two districts from the Kumaon region i.e. Nainital and Udhamsingh Nagar were selected purposely based on highest vegetable production as the locale for the study. Further, two blocks i.e. Dhari and Haldwani from Nainital district and Gadarpur and Rudrapur from Udhamsingh Nagar district were selected through simple random sampling without replacement. Later, two villages from each block i.e. Sharana and Khuni Gaon from Dhari, Gualapar and Khera from Haldwani, Barirai and Girdharnagar from Gadarpur and lastly, Fauji Matkota and Narayanpur from Rudrapur block were selected through simple random sampling without replacement. Thus, eight villages were selected and 25 respondents from each village (200 total respondents) were selected through snowball sampling. The data was collected through a pre-tested structured interview schedule and descriptive and analytical research design was used. The data, thus collected, was coded, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted with the help of Excel, SPSS and UCINET software programmes. From the findings, it can be concluded that majority of the vegetable growers belonged to middle age (34 to 58 years), were male, having education up to high school, had nuclear family with family size between 5 to 8 members. Almost all the vegetable growers were small and marginal farmers having land less than one hectare with secondary occupation as animal husbandry and agricultural labourers. It was also found that majority of the respondent had annual income between Rs 36985- Rs 258310. As regarding farming experience, majority of respondents had medium level (12-35 years) of experience. A large majority of respondents had no training exposure regarding marketing of vegetables and majority of them were neither connected to any organization or enterprise related to marketing. An equal number of vegetable growers belonged to middle and low socio-economic status. With respect to psychological variables majority of the vegetable growers had medium level of economic motivation, innovativeness, risk preference and market orientation. Almost half of the respondents had medium level of mass-media exposure and majority of them belonged to medium level of information sharing behaviour and information seeking behaviour. The descriptive analysis of communication networks of all the eight villages regarding marketing and production about network centrality was done. It was found that Naraynpur village had highest density, with highest average degree. Also, Gualapar village had the highest connectedness, with lowest component ratio and fragmentation. Further, Sharana village had highest in-degree and out-degree. Khuni Gaon had highest in-closeness as well as out-closeness whereas Girdharnagar village had highest betweenness. Majority of the vegetable growers displayed medium level of marketing behaviour. It can therefore be concluded that the marketing behaviour of vegetable growers varies from person to person and is influenced by many factors such as area under vegetable cultivation, annual income, training, SES, mass media exposure, information seeking behaviour and information sharing behaviour. Major constraints regarding marketing as reported by vegetable growers were long chain of intermediaries, inadequate transport facility, high transportation charges, inadequate storage facility and lack of remunerative prices whereas in respect to production, major constraints were high cost of seed/fertilizers, lack of information, lack of knowledge about grading and standardization and non availability of labour. The study outcomes are important for delineating individuals in the communication networks providing effective backward-forward linkages and facilitate marketing information flow. This will help in the promotion of vegetable cultivation in the state.
